Bolivias crisis unresolved, say Communists

June 17, 20055:23 AM CDT

LA PAZ, Bolivia — The resignation of President Carlos Mesa, said the Communist Party of Bolivia, “has not solved the political crisis that burdens our country.”

The statement, made by Marcos Domich, first secretary of the party’s Central Committee, followed Mesa’s resignation on June 10. Mesa’s action came on the heels of massive street protests here in the nation’s capital and elsewhere in the country. Mesa was succeeded by former Bolivian Supreme Court Chief Justice Eduardo Rodriguez after the first two people in line for succession were forced to decline the job in the face of popular pressure. Rodriguez is the third president Bolivia has had in a little more than year and a half.

Bolivian Communists said that the new interim president should not undertake any measures except the “routine administration of the state and general elections within the next six months.” The party also demanded that parliament “pass no laws until the holding of general elections,” with the exception of laws for “the recovery of Bolivia’s energy resources” from foreign interests.

Domich denied reports in the Bolivian and international press that protests were limited to the western part of Bolivia, pointing to widespread protests and actions throughout the country. He said efforts to portray the protests as a conflict between regions is a dangerous view that could lead to national disintegration.

The Communist Party also called for action by the central government to control the violence of the ultra-right against the progressive organizations in Santa Cruz, an area known as a base for corporate interests in the expropriation of Bolivia’s resources. At the same time, the party called upon unions, community organizations, and revolutionary and patriotic parties “to unify the demands, the objectives and procedures of the present fight.”